Scientists in Cameroon have warned that eating monkeys and apes could cause the next HIV.
They are already tracking a HIV-like virus called simian foamy virus, and fear more viruses could spread and lead to a global health crisis.
80 per cent of the meat eaten in Cameroon is killed in the wild and is known as ‘bushmeat’,with gorilla, chimpanzee or monkey favourites.
According to one estimate, up to 3,000 gorillas are slaughtered in southern Cameroon every year.
Elsewhere, the Washington-based Bush Meat Crisis Task Force estimates that up to five million tons of wild animals are being ‘harvested’ in the Congo Basin every year – the equivalent of 10 million cattle.
A study earlier this year by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), identified evidence of viruses,including simian foamy virus, in illegally imported wildlife products confiscated at several U.S. international airports, including John F. Kennedy International Airport, George Bush Intercontinental-Houston and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International.
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‘A recent survey confirmed this is now in humans, especially in some of those who are hunters and cutting up the apes in the south-east of the country,’ he said.
He also believes that ebola may be present, and caused a recent mass death in a nearby village.
‘In the village of Bakaklion our brothers found a dead gorilla in the forest,’ said Felix Biango,a village elder.
‘They took it back to the village and ate the meat. Almost immediately, everyone died – 25 men, women and children – the only person who didn't was a woman who didn't eat the meat.’
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Widespread Eating of Primates Could Cause Epidemics
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Is long pork a form of bushmeat?
ReplyDeleteIt very well may be "fair game" in some areas. I found the following from the Wikipedia article on "Cannibalism":
DeleteIn the 1980s, Médecins Sans Frontières, the international medical charity, supplied photographic and other documentary evidence of ritualized cannibal feasts among the participants in Liberia's internecine strife to representatives of Amnesty International who were on a fact-finding mission to the neighboring state of Guinea. However, Amnesty International declined to publicize this material; the Secretary-General of the organization, Pierre Sane, said at the time in an internal communication that "what they do with the bodies after human rights violations are committed is not part of our mandate or concern". The existence of cannibalism on a wide scale in Liberia was subsequently verified.
The self-declared Emperor of the Central African Republic, Jean-Bédel Bokassa (Emperor Bokassa I), was tried on October 24, 1986 for several cases of cannibalism although he was never convicted. ...
Cannibalism has been reported in several recent African conflicts, including the Second Congo War, and the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. A UN human rights expert reported in July 2007 that sexual atrocities against Congolese women go "far beyond rape" and include sexual slavery, forced incest, and cannibalism. This may be done in desperation, as during peacetime cannibalism is much less frequent; at other times, it is consciously directed at certain groups believed to be relatively helpless, such as Congo Pygmies, even considered subhuman by some other Congolese. It is also reported by some that witch doctors sometimes use the body parts of children in their medicine. In the 1970s the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was reputed to practice cannibalism.
In Uganda, the Lord's Liberation Army routinely engage in ritual or magical cannibalism.